Anita Blake: Somebody Bigger
by Clayton Overstreet
Summary: There is always somebody bigger than you


I don't own these characters or profit from them.

Somebody Bigger By, Clayton Overstreet

There's always somebody bigger than you. And there's usually somebody bigger than them. Secretly I suppose I had gotten it into my head somewhere that I was the biggest baddest thing around. Who could blame me? I'd taken on monsters that had terrorized the world for thousands of years and won. I had who knew how many kinds of lycanthropy in me, necromancy enough that I might even be able to control the vampire council if I was ever dumb enough to try, and a huge support structure of hundreds of vampires and shape shifters. I had even managed to hold off the Mother of all vampires. All that was shaken when I woke up one morning. I was alone, but I could smell cooking bacon and eggs and coffee. Nathaniel was cooking breakfast. Smiling I got up and stretched. I was completely naked, a state I was in more frequently since becoming a succubus. Still, I had a bit of modesty and slipped on a bath robe before heading into the kitchen. I was surprised to find Micah sitting at the table holding a DVD. In front of him were two large baskets full of food and several other movies. Cautiously I sat down as he looked up at me. "What's this"  
"They were delivered this morning," Micah said. Reaching over he held up an open envelope addressed to him and pulled out the letter inside. I took it and read it. "Dear Sir, I am entering your territory and while I will not be asking for permission, I felt it would be a show of good faith to give the local leaders in the supernatural community a small token of my respect. Enjoy. Dr. D.M." I handed it back and reached to the other basket where I saw an envelope addressed to me. Opening it I saw the same note with the word "Miss" replacing "Sir". In Micah's basket was a selection of gourmet meats and the DVD's I noticed earlier. I had to supress a grin when I saw the titles: Cat People, The Jungle Book, and the Aristocats. Then I looked in mine and saw the entire Evil Dead trilogy perched on a pile of fruit. "I called around. All the alphas got some with DVDs that were specifically tailored to whatever they were. The lions got the Lion King movies, Jean Claude got blood packets and some movies called Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Rockula, and Sundown. Richard received meats like me and both Teen Wolf movies and an old cartoon called Fang Face"  
I gave this somethought, staring at the note. "Whoever this D.M. guy is he's pretty bold. He's showing off his knowledge of the local shape shifters and vampires while at the same time disreguarding any idea that they can actually stop him from coming here. Jean Claude isn't going to like that"  
"But he did send gifts and the movies all seem to be pretty happy," Nathaniel said putting a plate in front of me along with a cup of coffee. I picked up my fork and ate with gusto. "So he's either trying to show he means no harm or he's trying to insult us. Which is it?" Micah asked. I ate and tried to think. It was way too early int he morning to be dealing with this. Still, if nothing else, the last few years had trained me for dealing with the weird stuff and I wasn't about to let a couple of gift baskets throw me. "What I don't understand," I eventually said. "Is why this guy would be announcing himself like this. If they're just passing through then they didn't need to tell us and if they're staying then why just the gift baskets." I reached over and riffled through mine. Mostly it was fruit but as I cleared some of it away I found two tickets at the bottom. "New discoveries in the field of lycanthropy sciences. Lecture on the third at nine PM." "That's today," Nathaniel said.  
I blinked and looked at the clock on the microwave. It was already noon. "So, do we go"  
"You two go," Nathaniel said. "You got the baskets. I guess he's only inviting alphas. It might be a bad idea for me to go." He had a point. If we were going ot be in a room full of the top dogs of the local lycanthropes having a submissive leopard like Nathaniel there would be a bad idea. "Well, I have to admit I am curious," Micah said. "Curiousity killed the cat," I muttered but it was half hearted. Whoever this person was I had to admit, they'd gotten my attention. "Well, my day was free anyway." It was the weekend and for once I didn't have anything planned except sitting in front of the television. "Too bad. I was looking forward to watching the end of Shark Week."

Micah and I took a seat near the front. By the time we got to the auditorium where this "lecture" was being held there weren't that many seats left and most lycanthropes prefer to stick to the back and the shadows when in public, especially if anybody knows who they are. I saw Richard and he nodded at me. So did several other alphas I recognized. "This is strange," Micah said. I frowned. "What?" "We're surrounded by the most powerful lycanthropes in town. So how come I can't sense any of them"  
He had a point. Straining my own senses I realized it was like I was in a room full of normal humans. If normal humans smelled like lycanthropes. I tried to reach inside to see how my beasts were reacting and realized I could barely sense them. Like they were trying to hide. After we sat down Jean Clause was suddenly there and sitting down next to us. "Ma Petite, I see you decided to see what this was all about aswell." 'You know me. I hate to miss a party," I said. Casually I pulled open my jacket to show him my holster in plain sight. He nodded in satisfaction. "And you"  
He grinned and leaned forward to kiss me. When he finished he said, "I couldn't let you attend a party without me." Suddenly the lights dimmed and a spotlight lit up the stage up front. He was young, a little overweight, but good lookng. He wore a white labcoat and carried some papers with him. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I am Dr. Dean Morris. Most of you don't know me, but I have spent the last twenty years heading up the government's lab on lycanthope research." I blinked in surprise. He barely looked twenty five. "I'm older than I look," he added, as if reading my mind. "I am here to tell you of some remarkable new discoveries I've made in my field." Someone in the back said, "You have a funny way of getting attention." "I thought it would be the best way"  
"You seem pretty sure of yourself," someone else said. "Yes," was his only reply. Clearing his throat he said, "I have developed a way to keep new lycanthropes from changing into animals." Suddenly he had everyone's attention. "You can make us human?" Richard asked. Morris laughed out loud. "Oh, gods no. Once the transformation is complete you're no longer human and never will be." Richard simultaniously seemed to sag in disappointment and growl with anger at the brush off. "No, my research involved taking a look at why there were so many kinds of lycanthropes and how they originated as the most dangerous animals in the area they come from. Through years of research I've found a way to take a newly infected lycanthrope and choose the animal they'll become.  
"So, I took that and went to the next step. I have developed a type of human lycanthropy." He saw the confused looks around him. "What I mean is, instead of turning into a wolf or a leopard or something I can inject them with my serum and instead they will become human when they transform. They're still a lycanthrope and there are side effects, but the process work"  
The audience mumbled in surprise. The idea was startling. All the benifits of being a lycanthrope and none of the downsides? There had to be a catch. But before I could ask Jean Clause said, "You mentioned side effects"  
"Yes. You see, humans... when you get down to it lycanthropy brings out the instincts of the creature they become. And with humans that means certain problems." "Like what?" Richard asked. He sighed. "Homicidal tendencies, a desire to hunt things down and kill them just for the fun of it, a tendency to run in packs..." "Sounds like the usual effects of lycanthropy," Richard said. Morris shook his head. "A lot of lycanthropes feel that way. It's amazing how that sort of thing gets started. But something that few werewolves and the like understand is that the animal isn't where those feelings come from." He looked around at his rapt audience and nodded to Jean Claude. "The same can be said of vampires. It's easy to see where the misunderstanding got started. People don't like to admit that they're responsible for their darker natures. But the truth is the desire so many lycanthropes feel to tear into everyone they meet stems from the human side suddenly having access to enhanced senses, superstrength, and the sharp teeth and claws needed to do it." "You're saying that the lycanthropy has nothing to do with that?" I asked, surprising myself. The doctor grinned at me. "I won't say that. But predators in the wild do not behave as lycanthrropes do. I've seen werewolves kill and eat their former alphas. Wolves in the wild rarely do that. Usually they fight until the other one surrenders. Werewolves fight to the death, despite being designed to give one another plenty of time to surrender. Lycanthropes can take lots of damage, especially compaired to humans and animals. But because they are human, surrender isn't always an option. And it's so convenient, isn't it? To blame the beast and not the man"  
I looked at Richard. He was pale and staring down at the seat in front of him. I knew what he must be thinking. He had killed Marcus and eaten him to become alpha of the local pack. Then suddenly to be told that it wasn't the monster in him that had done that but the man, it must have shaken him to the core. But Morris wasn't done. "Now, has anybody here got people who have been infected recently? The full moon is a week away. I'm asking for volunteers to try some of my serums. They can become whatever kind of animal they want... I have developed new strains of lycanthropy. Or they can take the human brand and find out how well they can control themselves"  
"You want to use us as test subjects?" He shook his head. "Why not? I've already experimented on myself"  
"How can we tell?" I asked. "Since we've been here I've barely been able to sense anyone's beast. I can't tell anything about you. What are you and why can't I sense anything?" Winking he said, "The reason you can't sense what I am is the same reason you can't see New York when you're standing in Times Square. Now are there any questions about my serum?" There were, but they were all answered quickly and soon enough he called it a night. "I have fliers at he door. Give them to anyone interested. Even if they're human and just want to become lycanthropes." "You're willing to turn people at random?" I asked. "Isn't that unethical"  
"Ethics? Isn't that a town in England? Somewhere near Morals?" He asked. With that he turned and walked away. We all sat there for a while, letting this sink in. I saw Rafael staring up at the ceiling and Richard still staring at nothing. I shared a look with Jean Claude and Micah and they nodded. Together we got up and walked over to him. It took a minute for him to realize we were there. "Hi." "Richard," Jean Claude said. "Are you alright?" "No, I really don't think so." He frowned. "Do you think he's right? That it wasn't the beast in me that makes me a monster?" I frowned. "I don't know Richard. I... I haven't ever studied it." It was strange. I spent so much time with lycanthropes and I never even looked at the animals they were based on. The closest I ever got was the occassional look at the discovery channel. Then again, how many tv shows explain monster politics? Maybe somebody should start one. Then again, all that graphic violence would probably keep it on Pay Per View. Marlin Perkins would have been eaten alive. "Didn't we have this conversation once?" He asked. "You pointed out that people eat other people. I'm a teacher Anita. I know a bit about real wolves and the man has a point. In the wild they don't usually kill challengers." "Yeah, but in the wild wolves don't hold grudges or try to pick you off with a gun if they can't take you in a fight." "Not helping," Micah muttered. I realized he was right. I'd just made Morris's point. Hell, I was a prime example. I'd killed more monsters than anybody else in the room, all the time clutching my precious humanity like a shield. Like it made me any better than them. Then I started to change and met people like Edward's associate Olaf and the line started to blur. Around us the room had cleared out along with most of the fliers Morris had mentioned. I looked at Jean Claude. "So what do we do?" "If he were a vampire it would be one thing. If he threatened us it would be something else. But this is a matter for the packs. Or possibly the police." I bit my lip. "I don't know. As long as he isn't injecting minors I can't catch him on turning people into lycanthropes. And there's no law against changing a new lycanthrope's species." "But if he creates new kinds and there aren't any alphas here for that animal..." Micah started. "What do we do to control them if they can't handle it"  
"Good point," I said. "I'll see what I can do. We've got time until the full moon. I'll try to talk to the good doctor and see what's going on. Jean Claude what do you think?" "Ma Petite, I hesitate to say this. As you said it was as if something here was supressing the beasts inside the alphas but from him I sensed great power." "When you say great what do you mean"  
"I mean it was very big," he said. "I could tell he was supressing much of it so as not to frighten us, but if I were to guess I would say it is possible that whatever he is may surpass the Mother of Darkness." Micah's face paled and I suspected mine did too. Richard was woken from his newest self pity and stared in shock. "Uh, would you mind repeating that?" "I would. I say now though that I suspect that whatever experiment he performed on himself has made that man much more than human." "Then why couldn't we sense anything?" "It is as he said. If you walk up to a painting and place your face to the wall you can't see it." "You're saying that whatever he is is so powerful... so big that I'm incapable of sensing it because he's too close? What kind of lycanthrope could do that?" "I do not know Ma Petite, but I think we should find out, yes?" "Oh yes," I said. I looked at Richard and Micah. "Can you tell the pack and the pard what's going on?" They nodded. As we left the building I walked across the parkinglot to my car with Micah. Stopping at the edge I turned and looked back at the building. I could feel something there now. Before I'd written it off as being from having so many alphas in one place. But they were gone and they feeling didn't diminish. Jean Claude was right. Whatever Dean Morris was, it was big.

I wasn't able to get in touch with Morris but I left him messages about our concerns and asked him to get in touch with us. He responded through his secretary that he would love to meet us in person on the night of the full moon so he could watch his work in progress. He just needed a place where many different lycanthropes could agree to meet with lots of space. It took a while but Jean Claude found an open area deep in the woods that even the lycanthropes hadn't claimed yet. Morris agreed to meet us there. In the meantime we tried to find out what we could about him, but there were no public records and an internet search turned up 3000 different Dean Morris hits and none of them were connected to lycantropy. The only one we found involved a government warning for all police and law enforcement personel to avoid him at all costs but left out the reason why. When we asked the people he experimented on they said all he did was give them shots and take some blood samples. Though for the ones we found who decided to take the serum, they all said he asked them to keep their choice of species secret until the full moon. "He want's it to be a surprise," was the standard answer. When I got to the clearing it was already well past moonrise. I always prefer to arrive late these days. It helps avoid the petty dominance fights that always take place in the first hour and also lets me avoid seeing everyone transform. Plus these days there's always a chance that I'll change into something myself so it's probably best if I don't risk being around a bunch of shapeshifters who might have a different animal than me. But this time I regreted it. As soon as I got close to the meeting place of Richard's pack I could smell the fear and sense the power spilling out of the place. I brought up a handful of silver throwing knives and rushed in. I was surprised by what I saw waiting for me. My leopards stood in a group off to the side a little away from the wolves and some of the other shapeshifters. Two werelions were circling each other. One was Haven, the new leader Jean Claude and I had brought in from Chicago. The other... I didn't recognize him at first, but then the power hit me and I knew it was the doctor. Keeping my eyes on the two of them I moved to where Micah and Nathaniel stood. Jean Clause and Richard stood with the wolves. "What's going on"  
"Haven showed up, said that someone from his pride had changed his girlfriend so they could be together, but apparently she went to the doctor. Haven doesn't like people interfering with his people like that." He nodded to the side and for the first time I noticed the other group of animal-people that stood off to the side. It was easy to miss them, since all eyes were on the growing fight. There were a couple of bats, some cats, a few lizards, what looked like a crocodile, a horse, half a dozen humans, and a wooly mammoth! Fifteen feet high at the shoulder in humanoid form with tusks the length of a child... and from the feel of it his full animal form would be even bigger. I turned away before I started staring. "So he's just a werelion?" "No," both of them said at once. Suddenly the doctor stood up straight and held his fists out. "Come on, put em up! Put em up! I'll take you with one hand behind my back!" I almost laughed outloud. He sounded exactly like the cowardly lion. Haven was less than amused. With a roar he leapt... and found nothing there. He turned around quickly to look behind him just as a furry fist colided with his face. I was shocked to see him shoot through the air like a canon ball until he hit a large tree, splintering it and sending the top half crashing to the ground behind him even as his body hit the ground. "Is he..." Someone asked. The doctor shook his head. "He'll be fine in a while. He's tough." As he turned to walk towards the strange group of animals his body changed. It didn't shift like a lycanthrope, but in the blink of an eye he was human again. The person who asked was a woman, though that might be pushing it. She looked like an amazon. Eight feet tall, muscles bulged everywhere, just short of making her look like a man and helped along by the huge breasts. Her brown hair spread down her shoulders like a lion's mane combined with a horse's tail until it reached her waist. Her breasts were in proportion and looked bigger than my head. Her teeth shone pure white in the night and her fingernails glittered like pearl. "What the Hulk?" I asked looking at similar people standing around them. They were all naked except a few trying to hold tattered clothes out in front of them. "You're not far off," Nathaniel said. "They all looked normal when they got here but once the moon came up they just kind of ballooned up. And they all still smell human." "What about the others?" "Well the elephant man over there was only three feet tall! Honestly I kind of expected him to pop. And the others... it's just so weird. A lot of them started freaking out until Morris there suddenly moved into the middle of them and then for a second we all felt like we were being sat on and they calmed down immediately. I think that's what really freaked Haven out." I nodded and cautiously moved forward. Micah and Nathaniel started to follow but I waved them back. Under control or not it wouldn't be a good idea for them to approach a group of new lycanthropes like that. I was almost there when Richard was suddenly in front of me. "Morris, I need to talk to you." "You mean fight?" He asked without turning around. Richard nodded. I grabbed his arm. "What are you doing?" "I can't help it Anita. Can't you feel it?" It took a second to realize what he meant. Thn I realized that my beasts weren't acting like they usually did. When I was around the monsters sometimes it was like they were just under my skin trying to break out. But right now they didn't even stir. I flet them all cowering together somewhere deep inside me.  
"You're afraid of him." "Yes. But I'm also dominant. It's my place to fight things the pack is afraid of." "I... I understand." And suddenly Jean Claude was there, pulling me away. Morris sighed. "This is always so boring, but that's why I arrange these meetings int he first place. It has to be done." He turned finally, winking at his strange group, and said, "But lets make this interesting. Draw a circle. The first one to go outside it loses." "Deal," Richard growled. Behind him Sylvie picked up a stick and began drawing a large circle around thirty feet wide. They walked into the center of it. Suddenly Morris was a wolfman. I stared in shock. "He's a panwere?" "No," Jean Clause said. "No... that's not it." "I can tell that isn't what you are." Morris gave a wolf's head grin. "You want me in my true form? After what I did to him?" Richard nodded. "Okay." Suddenly the fur melted away and greenish-yellow scales spread over Dean Morris's body. His snout changed from canine to pointed and lizard-like. Wings sprouted from his back and the tail thickened into a whip with a barb at the end. Horns popped into place and all of his teeth became like small knives. For a moment there he stood, ten feet tall, humanoid, and staring down at Richard with yellow glowing slitted eyes. Richard got into a defensive position, but then realized that Morris was changing again. He grew, getting bigger and bigger, his body losing it's vaguely human resemblance. I had only seen one dragon before in my life. The beast taking form in front of me made that one look like a canary by comparison. And as I began to recognize the species I suddenly realized that this slow transformation was all show. He could have taken his true form in seconds. "Oh my god..." "What is it Ma Petite?" Jean Claude asked, his hands tightening on my shoulders as my knives dropped to the ground. "It's a Great Dragon." "Anita," he said. "I can see it's a dragon..." "No, you don't understand." Morris now took up most of the free space in the clearing now. his body was over two hundred feet long and that was before you got to his tail which was sticking out into the trees. Wings bigger than airplanes suddenly blocked out the light of the moon and stars. His claws dug into the ground, leaving furrows like a plow. Throwing back his head Morris roared and hissed, sounding like waves crashing against a cliff as a line of fire shot out of his mouth going higher than a skyscraper. The heat mostly went up, but even with that the feel of the air around us was suddenly like a desert. Between the spikes and horns covering his body flashes of electrical discharge like lightning moved across his body. "There's a story that the Great Dragons were created by the goddess of chaos that made the universe when the gods rebelled against her. Designed and made to fight the gods, they were shape shifters, could control all the elements, and were as immortal as anything could be in this world with powers over magic too. Even the chinese dragons, equal to gods, aren't this strong." I breathed in and smelled musk and urine filling the air. Around me nearly everyone had lost control of their bowels simultaniously. Me too. Morris's head, as long as a semitruck on the end of a snake-like neck supported by muscles like steel cables, lowered down and a huge yellow eye reflected Richard's face back at him. In my head I was thinking, 'This thing could rule everything.' Morris had the power to control every lycanthrope in the world. I could feel the power radiating off him. He could even crush the mind of any vampire I had met, including Mommy Dearest. She was an ancient tiger, a maneater. This thing could have used Jurrasic Park as a buffet. Picture the real life equivilent of Godzilla and you wouldn't even be close! Somewhere on a mystic level, a connection to Mommy Dearest and Bella Morte that I normally did my best to keep shut, I felt both of them experience true fear for perhapse the first time in centuries.  
In my mind Bella said, "Look on my works ye mighty and despair." I shut the door and watched. Richard wasn't fighting back. He obviously wanted to. Wanted to leap on the thing in front of him and tear into it with his claws, even though it was obvious that they wouldn't even scratch the thing's iron scales. But his shaking legs seemed to have locked up. "Oops," Morris said. His voice echoed around the clearing and I realized that everyone who wasn't an alpha or unconscious was bowing down to him. We all looked up in shock. "Would you look at that? I seem to have stepped outside the circle." We looked down. The line Sylvie had drawn was obscured under one of his front feet. "Guess you win." "What?" Richard managed. Morris suddenly grew six more heads on the end of six long necks. One looked like me, another like Richard, Jean Claude, Haven, Morris's human face, Micha, and a beautiful asian woman. "You win You win. You win!" The heads each repeated those words over and over. And then there was a flash of light and Morris stood there again, human shaped. But now I knew that he had never taken on his human form. A man who would meddle with the things he had to become what he had wouldn't allow himself to risk that. Why bother when your other form could look like anything you wanted?  
"How? How could you do it?" I asked. He turned to look at me and Richard collapsed forward onto his hands and knees, tears streaming down his face. "What do you mean?" "I... I don't know," I said. "Give up your humanity like that. Or how did you do it?" "If I hadn't 'given up my humanity' as you put it, do you think the wolf here would be alive?" He asked. "And as for how I did it... there are placed where the great dragons sleep. Some still exist of course, hiding among the mortal humans and animals, deep benathe the waves of oceans and lakes... in ice and snow. They hide from their enemies and wait for the return of their master." "But wasn't that goddess killed?" He shrugged. "Maybe. But she was a god and it's always so hard to tell. Tiamat may rise again. Or she may not. But either way I'll be there to see it. And you have to admit Miss Blake, if I was going to turn myself into a monster, what better way to do it?" "But how..." "Let's just say, I got my hands on the DNA and that's all I needed. You know, humans have a natural ability to shapeshift. Every religion claims that we are descended in some way from a god. Made in their image, from their bodies... lycanthropy just brings out what is usually just stimulated by evolution." He chuckled, "Evolution. As if a single cell could suddenly decide a creature needs teeth or horns. You also have touched that part of yourself, haven't you necromancer." "And what can you do?" I asked quietly. He grinned. "What can you imagine?" He winked. "But don't worry. I have no intention of making anybody else like me. And if I bite someone I somehow doubt they'd live long enough to get infected." "I am thinking Pinnochio..." Jean Claude said. And I could see it to. In his true form someone could probably get an entire apartment built in Morris's stomach. The man smiled and shrugged. "Mr. Geppeto!" He laughed and turned his back on us. "Anybody else feel like a little fight?" Nobody volunteered. Walking forward he nodded to his special shapeshifters and they nervously followed him as he vanished among the trees. If it weren't for the huge dragon-shaped hole dug into the ground in front of us it was almost as if he hadn't been there at all. I realized my legs were shaking and I sat down, trying to ignore the unpleasant warm and wet feeling in my pants. "Oh my god..." "Ma Petite?" Jean Claude asked again. "I'm fine. I'm... I'm fine." I took a deep breath. I looked up at him and forced a grin. "You know, up until now I thought vampires were strong. We faced one over a million years old who could make the ground open up under a city and swallow it. We've faced the Mother of Darkness and Bella. But that guy could eat the entire vampire counsel for lunch in one gulp." "Indeed," Jean Claude said. "And that's not all. He got the DNA to make himself that way from somewhere. From what he said there could be so many of those dragons around and we would never know it." I swallowed. "I never realized until now just how weak we are. It kind of puts things into perspective." Jean Claude said, "And if you think about it, in olden days a man with a magic sword had a chance against a dragon. But that man combined dragon DNA with lycanthropy"  
My eyes widened as I tried to grasp what that would mean. Any sword that might take down a dragon wouldn't work on Morris unless it was made of silver and even then you'd have to be able to avoid his powers and fire and get it into a vital spot. Even if he didn't cure the silver alergy somehow. On top of that, a lycanthrope's body was always many times stronger than any animal or human could be. Transfer that increased strength into the dragon we had seen and..."Oh my god." I peed myself again. "He could crush the world." "And might," Jean Claude said. "It is sobering to know that there is something out there to which I am not even a flea." He grinned suddenly, fangs peeking over his lips. "Ma Petite, it may just be me, but suddenly everything we have been through these last few years... it just seems so silly now, doesn't it?" I thought about it and had to laugh. "You are right. Ha! Vampires... werewolves... demons... compaired to that thing... it's like we've been playing with kittens." I let him help me up and we both looked down. "I so need a shower"  
Around us the lycanthropes seemed to deflate. Alsphas, dominance games... what was the point now? Every one of them would bow down to Morris if he asked them to. He wouldn't have to fight any of them. Richard was still crying. I could sense his wolf, howling inside him. He had failed to protect his pack. Morris not fighting him was a joke. A set up. And there was nothing he could do about it. Hell, could anybody? The police, army... Morris could probably survive a nuke. We didn't stay to comfort RIchard. Everyone just wanted to be alone and I had given up on taking Richard's bagage. I felt sorry for him, but that was it. Reaching up I grabbed the cross around my neck and gave up a quick prayer. Somewhere out there, I knew God heard me. I reflected on Morris's words and put them into my own thoughts. "I'm a part of God and he's a part of me." "Anita?" Nathaniel asked. I smiled. "Nevermind. Let's go home." There's always somebody bigger than you out there. And as I held onto my faith I knew that this wasn't a bad thing.

Author's Note

In the Anita books it's always struck me that everyone seems to think vampires are the big bad. But I'm an avid student of cryptozoology and I happen to know that there are worse things out there. Plus it seemed like a good idea to have someone experimenting with werewolves. After all, somebody would. I just thought, if so many animals can be lycanthropes, why not humans? Humans, who appaently wiped out most of the other monsters all by themselves. Tell me what you think via email 


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